What Arunima Sinha, the first female amputee to climb Everest, did next

WIRED 2015 is our annual two-day celebration of the innovators, inventors, artists and entrepreneurs who are reinventing our world. For more from the event, head over to our WIRED 2015 hub.

In 2011 Arumina Sinha was thrown off the Padmavat Express train, bound for Delhi, by thieves. Lying helpless on the tracks, another train ran over her leg. Gripping two rocks to try and distract her from the pain, she counted 49 carriages passing over her. "After some time I see my leg is totally gone below the knee," she told the audience at WIRED2015, in her first English-language public talk. That was at night -- it wasn't until 6:30 the following morning that someone from a nearby village found Sinha. She was rushed to hospital and her leg was amputated below the knee without anaesthesia.

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"I cannot explain this painful time," Sinha explained. "I decided in hospital bed that I wanted to take on something."

That something was Mount Everest. Two years later, she became the first female amputee to reach the top of the world.

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"My goal is my life, my goal is my passion and my goal is my everything," she explained. "I did it with my heart. It was my will power that got me through it. I wanted to scream that I am top of the world."

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She reached the summit on May 21, 2013 after a 52-day journey. But Sinha hasn't stopped there. After climbing Everest she resolved to climb the tallest peaks on all seven continents and she's already ticked-off Kilimanjaro, Elbrus and Kosciuszko.

"I do not believe in luck, I believe the luck comes to someone who has the desire to live," she said. "The true achiever is someone who keeps pushing themselves."

And she wants to help others achieve similar goals.

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To do this, Sinha has set up a sports academy outside Lucknow, India. The free academy helps poor and disabled people. Part funded by the money Sinha makes from seminars and awards, the Pandit Chandra Shekhar Vikalang Khel Academy aims to train people to become strong and independent through sports. Sinha explained the goal of the academy was to empower people through sport and make society more inclusive.

To describe her journey, Sinha recited a poem in Hindi. Translated, it reads:

The flight of this bird is yet to be startedIts true willpower is yet to be tested. Just moments ago I crossed the oceansBut the entire sky is yet to be explored